London university axes academic who repeated infamous antisemitic conspiracy

A British university has banned an academic and suspended the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine over a viral video showing the academic rehashing discredited antisemitic conspiracy theories in a lecture before the group.

University College London (UCL) has barred Dr Samar Maqusi from its campus and removed her profile from its website, saying it "launched a full investigation" into the matter.  

Maqusi's lecture on “The Birth of Zionism” was the first in a five-part series called “Palestine: From Existence to Resistance.”

In the footage circulated on social media she said that “So the story is that a certain investigation was undergoing to try and find where Father Thomas is – he was found murdered and a group of Jews who lived in Syria said they admitted to kidnapping him and murdering him to get the drops of blood for making the holy bread,” Maqusi said.

She inserted the caveat that “these are things that you read, and again, as I said, do investigate. Draw your own narrative,” going on to say that "but the story is that during this feast [Passover] they make these special pancakes, or bread. And part of the Holy ceremony is that drops of blood from someone who’s not Jewish, which the term is gentile.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British advocacy group, said in a statement that “by failing to clearly refute this centuries-old falsehood, the audience is left with the impression that such a claim could be true, thereby perpetuating one of the most dangerous and long-standing antisemitic myths."

Maqusi made further claims that French emperor Napoleon “decides to call out to the Jews in Asia and Africa, because at that time, as many of you also know, a lot of the financial network, a lot of the banks, a lot of the financial infrastructure was owned by a lot of Jewish families, the Jews pretty much controlled the financialization structure."

“And he promised them in return that if they give him the money, they fund the battle against the British and the Ottomans, that in return he pledged that he would erect the Jewish kingdom, in his words the revival of the Jewish kingdom in Palestine under French patronage.”